Safe Bulkers, Inc.'s (NYSE:SB) top owners are individual investors with 37% stake, while 26% is held by insiders
Key Insights
The considerable ownership by individual investors in Safe Bulkers indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
A total of 5 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
Every investor in Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE:SB) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 37% to be precise, is individual investors. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).
And individual insiders on the other hand have a 26% ownership in the company. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones.
Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Safe Bulkers, beginning with the chart below.
Check out our latest analysis for Safe Bulkers
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Safe Bulkers?
Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Safe Bulkers. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Safe Bulkers' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Safe Bulkers is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Polys Hajioannou with 26% of shares outstanding. Vorini Holdings Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 17% of common stock, and BlackRock, Inc. holds about 3.3% of the company stock.
To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.
While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.
Insider Ownership Of Safe Bulkers
The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.
I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.
It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Safe Bulkers, Inc.. Insiders have a US$117m stake in this US$450m business. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public-- including retail investors -- own 37% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.
Private Company Ownership
It seems that Private Companies own 17%, of the Safe Bulkers stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Safe Bulkers better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Safe Bulkers (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should be aware of before investing here.
Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
